Aging in the American workforce

The aging workforce, controversially referred to as The Silver Tsunami, refers to the rise in the median age of the United States workforce to levels unseen since the passage of the Social Security Act of 1935. It is projected that by the year 2020, about 25% of the U.S. workforce will be composed of older workers (ages 55 and over). While many factors contribute to the aging workforce, the Post-World War II baby boom created an unusually large birth cohort for the U.S. population, resulting in a large aging population today. This phenomenon has many short-term and long-term implications, affecting many areas, including the U.S. economy, society and public health. The aging workforce, controversially referred to as The Silver Tsunami, refers to the rise in the median age of the United States workforce to levels unseen since the passage of the Social Security Act of 1935. It is projected that by the year 2020, about 25% of the U.S. workforce will be composed of older workers (ages 55 and over). While many factors contribute to the aging workforce, the Post-World War II baby boom created an unusually large birth cohort for the U.S. population, resulting in a large aging population today. This phenomenon has many short-term and long-term implications, affecting many areas, including the U.S. economy, society and public health. Starting in the years following World War II, from 1946 to 1964, about 76 million people were born in the United States, creating a large birth cohort known as the Baby boomers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of April 2014, the labor force participation rate was 62.8%. The overall labor force participation rate is expected to decline for the remainder of the decade, projected to fall to 62.5% in 2020. By the year 2020, the subpopulation of older adults in the United States is expected to reach 97.8 million people, comprising 28.7% percent of the entire U.S. population, a rise from the 24.7% in 2010. This increase in proportion of older adults can be attributed to the entire Baby Boomer cohort joining the older adult population (ages 55+) by 2020. It is projected that by 2020, the proportion of the U.S. labor force that is composed of older adults will be 25.2%. This continues a trend in increasing rates of older adults remaining in the workforce, as the rates were 13.1% in 2000 and 19.5% in 2010. A complementary trend that follows this is the increasing median age of the U.S. workforce. By 2020, the workforce is expected to have a median age of 42.8, which will be an increase from 39.3 in 2000 and 41.7 in 2010.